10 Things You Must Give Up Moving Forward

 10 Things You Must Give Up Moving Forward

                                                (1,000 Happy Successful People Do Differently)

1. Letting opinions of others control your life

2. The shame of your past failures

• Failure to maintain relations with my best friend, Derrick

• Failure to get my college degree

• Failure to live on my own like my little brother

• Failure to cohabit with the love of my life (well, so far)

• Failure to lose weight

• Failure to publish a popular book

Well, some of these things I didn’t/ don’t want to do anyway; it just felt like I “should” do.

3. Being indecisive about what you want:

I want:

• Bestselling novels in all genres

• A loving supportive husband

• A gang of ten best friends I can call anytime (I kind of got this with my book club)

• A movie deal for Story of Hope

• Being selected for Oprah’s Book Club 

• Fan mail (“Your book changed my life”)

             What I Want in a Husband:

• Late night horror movie marathons to fuel my blog

• Watching the classics in a super comfy bed, eating popcorn and ice cream

• Brunch with our family. 

• Walking around town when the weather is nice. In the mall when it isn’t. Always stopping in Barnes and Nobles. 

• Intimate talk. More than sex, we share our hopes and fears

• Attending all my poetry slams

4) Procrastinating on Goals that Really Matter to You

• Getting Story of Hope ready to send to publishers and agents

• Publish another poetry book

• Do something for others

5) Choosing to do nothing

6) Your need to be right

7) Running from problems that should be fixed:

• Binge-eating. Today I had three bags of chips in addition to pasta for lunch.

• OCD

• My Risperdal is too high

• My Prozac is too low

8) Making excuses instead of decisions

9) Overlooking the positive points in your life

• My entire freshmen year at college. I don’t know if anything can top it until 2025

•  summer before senior of high school with my boyfriend, his friends and alot of alcohol

•  “living” with my friend’s family fresh out of the hospital in the remaining weeks before Christmas. My parents were uncomfortable with me going back to the dorm so my friend’s family became my second one.

• Any of the birthday parties/ Christmas parties/ Halloween parties with my Rockland poet friends

• —------’s amazing New Year’s Eve parties

• Any moment since Justin’s been in my life

• Now: I have everything   My mental health and my physical health aren’t perfect but my body is fairly healthy. I have friends that are loyal and sincere and that I would trust with all my secrets. I have an amazing boyfriend that I see a future with. I have two purposes (my writing and helping people. Working part time in a nursing home allows me to do both). I have my faith which gives me comfort. I have a loving family. I am safe. Life is good.

10)      Not appreciating the present moment.

           Right now Mom’s cooking mushrooms for dinner. Dad’s outside grilling in the evening air. I got home from work about two hours ago. It was a good day and i didn’t make too many mistakes in Bingo. I ‘m texting Justin and after dinner I’ll do some serious reading. I’lll say it again. Life is good.